Evacuating means

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to an exhaust hood which is positioned above a kitchen range and has a downward facing air inlet through which air, together with objectionable fumes produced during cooking, are drawn by a motor-fan unit into the hood. A hollow part is mounted on the exhaust hood and movable from an inner position adjacent to the hood to an outer position which is removed from the hood and above the front edge of the range. A small quantity of air flowing through the exhaust hood is diverted therefrom and conducted to the hollow part which is provided with a discharge opening for discharging air toward the working surface of the kitchen range. The air discharged from the discharge opening provides an air curtain which is at an acute angle to the vertical and has a major component directed vertically downward in a direction from the air inlet of the exhaust hood and a minor component directed horizontally toward the rear of the kitchen range and functions to promote removal of objectionable fumes produced during cooking in a normal path of flow leading to the air inlet of the exhaust hood.

United States Patent Manfred Otto llagdorn I 72] Inventor Stockholm, Sweden [21] Appl. No. 822,145

[22] Filed May 6, 1969 [45] Patented June 8, 1971 [73] Assignee Aktiebolaget Electrolux Stockholm, Sweden 32; Priority May 14, 1968 [33] Sweden [54] EVACUATING MEANS 5 Claims, 9 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.CI 98/115, 126/299 [51] Int. Cl F23j 11/00 [50] Field of Search 98/115, 36; 124/299, 300

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3 ,131,687 5/ 1964 Kalla A 98/11 5)} 3,131,688 5/1964 Lipstein 126/299 Primary Examiner-Meyer Perlin Attorney-Edmund Av Fenander ABSTRACT: This invention relates to an exhaust hood which is positioned above a kitchen range and has a downward facing air inlet through which air, together with objectionable fumes produced during cooking, are drawn by a motor-fan unit into the hood. A hollow part is mounted on the exhaust hood and movable from an inner position adjacent to the hood to an outer position which is removed from the hood and above the front edge of the range. A small quantity of air flowing through the exhaust hood is diverted therefrom and conducted to the hollow part which is provided with a discharge opening for discharging air toward the working surface of the kitchen range. The air discharged from the discharge opening provides an air curtain which is at an acute angle to the vertical and has a major component directed vertically downward in a direction from the air inlet of the exhaust hood and a minor component directed horizontally toward the rear of the kitchen range and functions to promote removal of objectionable fumes produced during cooking in a normal path of flow leading to the air inlet of the exhaust hood.

PATENTEDJUH 8l97| 3.583306 sum u UF 4 FIG.9

EVACUATING MEANS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I. Field of the Invention It is known to provide exhaust hoods in which a curtain of air is maintained above a working surface, such as a kitchen range, for example. In exhaust hoods ofthis kind the curtain of air is relatively week and does not function properly to direct objectionable fumes produced during cooking toward the air intakes of the exhaust hoods.

Further, in exhaust hoods of this kind the curtain of air often is maintained only over a portion ofthe working surface, such as its middle portion, for example. This reduces the ability of the exhaust hood to remove objectionable fumes effectively from the working surface, especially fumes of this kind produced during cooking at surface heating units at the front of the kitchen range.

In order to reach cooking vessels positioned on surface heating units at the rear of the kitchen range, it has been the practice heretofore to provide exhaust hoods that project forward from a rear wall for a distance not greater than one-half of the depth of the working surface, so that a person in front of the range will not inadvertently strike the hood under these conditions. When an air curtain is maintained in front of an exhaust hood of this type, the curtain only functions to direct fumes to the air inlet of the exhaust hood from the rear surface heating units of the range, which is objectionable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of my invention to provide an improved exhaust hood having a part which is mounted thereon for movement toward and from a zone above the front of the working surface and to divert air flowing through the hood to such part and to discharge the diverted air from the part toward the front of the working surface in the form of an air curtain.

l accomplish this by providing an elongated part which extends across the entire front of the working surface and in which a slot defines the air outlet from which air is discharged to form the air curtain. By providing a part for producing the air curtain which can be moved from a position at the vicinity of the exhaust hood to a position removed from the hood, the part can be positioned to direct an air curtain toward the front of the working surface when this is required, and, when it is necessary to inspect food being cooked on rear surface heating units, the part can be shifted to its position near the exhaust hood so that the likelihood of striking the part when leaning over the cooking surface will be avoided. Further, the air curtain is at an acute angle to the vertical with its major component directed vertically downward in a direction from the air inlet of the exhaust hood and a minor component directed horizontally toward the rear of the working surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. I is a side elevational view of a kitchen range andan evacuating means, partly in vertical section, embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of the evacuating means shown in FIG. I to illustrate details more clearly;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken at line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of parts shown in FIGS], 2 and 3;

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view taken at line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary view, partly broken away and in section, taken at line 7-7 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a front elevational view of the evacuating means shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; and

FIG. 9 is a front elevational view of the evacuating means shown in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawing, I have shown evacuating means 10 embodying my invention mounted in any suitable manner against a wall 11 above a kitchen range 12 having from and rear surface heating units 14 and 15, respectively, positioned on a platform defining a stationary working surface 16 having a front edge 17.

The evacuating means 10 comprises a casing I8 which defines an exhaust hood adapted to be disposed above at least the rear portion of the working surface 16. The casing 18 has a downward facing air inlet 19 and a motor-fan unit 20 therein for inducing upward flow of air through the air inlet 19. When pan frying of food is effected in a frying pan 21 positioned on a front heating unit I4 and objectionable fumes are produced during cooking, the fumes are drawn upward toward the evacuating means 10 by the partial vacuum produced at the air inlet 19 by the motorfan unit 20.

The motor-fan unit 20 comprises a motor 22 having a downward depending shaft 23 to which is fixed a fan 24 having blades 24a. The motor 22 is mounted within the casing 18 by an annular-shaped supporting member 25 in the form of a spider having radially extending vanes 26, as best shown in FIG. 4. About the outer extremities of the blades 24a and closely adjacent thereto is mounted an annular-shaped diffuser plate 27 which is of conical form in section, as shown in FIG. 2. The diffuser plate 27 extends upward and radially outward from the bottom edges of the blades 24a and at its outer periphery is fixed in any suitable manner to the sidewall of the casing 18.

Air drawn in through the air inlet 19 flows through the gap 28 between the fan blades 24a and the diffuser plate 27 and, after being discharged from the fan 24, flows upward through the casing I8 past the motor 22. The upper small end'of the casing 18 is connected to a conduit or vent pipe 29.

In view of the foregoing, it will now be understood the objectionable fumes produced during cooking at the working surface 16 are drawn through the air inlet 19 of the evacuating means I0 to the'inlet of the fan 24 and discharged from the latter through the upper part of the casing 18 and the conduit or vent pipe 29. To the front of the casing 18 is mounted a small housing 30 in which suitable controls are provided for controlling the surface heating units 14 and 15 and the motorfan unit 20. As shown in FIG. 8, the front wall of the control housing 30 functions as a control panel having suitable controls 31, 32 and 33 for controlling the motor-fan unit 20 and controls 34 for the surface heating units 14 and 15.

The evacuating means 10 in FIG. 3 is like the evacuating means 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and just described and differs therefrom in that the casing 18 is of rectangular form throughout its height and its upper open end is provided with angle members 35 for supporting in a horizontal position an odor absorbing filter 36, such as an activated charcoal filter, for example. The upper open end of the casing 18 is provided with a removable louver 37.

In accordance with my invention each of the evacuating means 10 and 10', in addition to the exhaust hood defined by the casings 18 and 18, comprises structure including a part 43 which is mounted on the casings l8 and 18' for movement thereon toward and from a zone 44 above the front edge 17 of the working surface 16. Further, the part 43 and conduits 45 connected thereto define passage means 46 having a discharge opening 47 for discharging air downward therefrom, as indicated by the arrow A in each of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. The conduits 45 of the passage means 46 have air inlets, as will be described presently, adapted to receive air from a source of supply.

The exhaust hood part 43 comprises a plat horizontally disposed hollow shell 48 in which the forward portions of the top and bottom horizontal walls are curved toward one another and have a gap 47 therebetween defining the discharge opening for discharging air downward therefrom.

The air discharge opening 47 defines a slot which extends along the entire forward edge of the part 43. With this construction the air discharged from discharge opening 47 forms an air curtain, indicated by the arrow A, which is directed toward the front of the working surface 16 when the part 43 is at the zone 44. The air curtain functions to promote removal of objectionable fumes from the working surface 16 in a normal path of flow leading to the air inlet 19 of the evacuating means and In this way the fumes are less likely to be diverted from their normal path of flow and flow upward in front of the casings l8 and I8 and control housing 30. The air curtain A is at an acute angle to the vertical, and, as schematicully illustrated in FIG. I, has a major component C directed vertically downward in a direction away from the air inlet 19 of the exhaust hood l8 and a minor component D directed horizontally toward the rear of the working surface 16.

As seen in FIG. 7, the outer ends of the conduits 45 extend into the flat shell 48 at its ends. To insure uniform distribution of air along the entire front portion of the shell 48, the outer open ends of the conduits 45 are inclined to the longitudinal axes of the conduits, as indicated at 450 in FIG. 7, so that the open ends of the two conduits 45 face one another. Further, curved vanes 49 are provided at the inclined open ends 4511 of the conduits 45 to deflect toward the center of the shell 48 air discharged from the open ends 45a.

As seen in FIG. 6 the rear lower portion of the flat shell 48 is provided with small openings 50 from which a small part of the air flowing to the shell 48 is discharged to form a second air curtain, indicated by the arrow B, which is essentially horizontal and prevents objectionable fumes produced during cooking from flowing upward in front of the casings l8 and I8 and control housing 30.

The depth or extent to which the evacuating means 10 projects forward from the wall II is comparatively small. For this reason the evacuating means 10 will not disturb the easy accessibility of the rear surface heating units 15, If the depth of the kitchen range 12 is about 620 mm., the depth of the evacuating means 10 can be as much as 370 mm., thus providing a free space at the front of the range 12 of about 250 mm.

In further accord with my invention, I provide structure for diverting a portion of the air flowing through the air inlet 19 to the fan 24 and flowing such diverted air from the fan to the conduits 45. As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 5, I accomplish this by providing a narrow vertically extending chamber 51 at the rear wall of the chambers 18 and 18', such chamber having approximately the same length as the filter 38. The chamber 51 extends upward from the air inlet 19 to a level midway between the top and bottom edges of the fan blades 24a of the fan 24. A small quantity of air drawn through the air intake 19 by the fan 24 is diverted from the normal upward flow of air in the casings 18 and 18' and flows into the chamber 51 through an air inlet 52 at the top thereof, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5.

The chamber 51 is provided with openings 53 at its opposite ends, at regions near the bottom thereof, which are in alignment with the rear ends of hollow tubes 54 extending crosswise of the casings l8 and 18'. As seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the hollow tubes also are in alignment with the openings in the front wall of the casings l8 and 18'.

In the chamber 51 the energy of the air is converted from potential energy to kinetic energy, thereby increasing the velocity at which air is discharged downward from the discharge opening 47. The conduits 45 telescopically fit within the hollow tubes 54 which function as guide tubes within which the conduits 45 are movable in the direction of their lengths to shift the part 43 from its solid line position in FIGS. 2 and 3 beneath the control housing 30 to its solid line position in FIG. I at the zone 44.

At the zone 44 the air curtain produced by air discharged from the discharge opening 47 toward the front the working surface 16 effectively prevents objectionable fumes from How ing upward in front of the control housing 30 and functions to direct the fumes produced during cooking toward the air intake 19 of the evacuating means 10 and 10'.

When it IS necessary to reach cooking vessels placed on the rear heating units 15, the part 43 can be readily moved from its dotted line position to its solid position in FIG. 2. Subsequently, the part 43 can be moved to its extended dotted line position in FIG. 2 at the vicinity of the zone 44.

I claim:

I. A kitchen range comprising:

a. means providing a horizontal platform defining a stationary working surface having a front edge and at least one surface heating unit thereon,

. evacuating means comprising structure including a casing defining an exhaust hood adapted to be disposed above at least the rear portion of said platform,

. said casing having a horizontally disposed air inlet which faces downward and overlies said platform and is vertically spaced therefrom,

. fan means in said casing for flowing air upward from the space above said working surface toward the air inlet,

said structure including a hollow part,

means for mounting said part on said casing,

means providing a passageway for flowing air from said casing to said hollow part,

. said hollow part having an elongated slot which is defined by a pair of spaced walls and extends across said working surface along a line extending substantially parallel to the front edge thereof,

. said spaced walls forming means for discharging a curtain of air from said hollow part toward said working surface which is at an acute angle to the vertical and has a major component directed vertically downward in a direction from said air inlet and a minor component directed horizontally toward the rear of said working surface, and

. said means for mounting said part on said casing including structure for moving said part horizontally from and toward said casing to shift said curtain of air backward and forward with respect to said stationary working surface and said surface heating unit thereon.

2. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part comprises a horizontally disposed hollow shell and said passageway means comprises spaced conduits having the outer ends thereof extending into said hollow shell, the outer ends of said conduits having slantlike openings which are at an acute angle to their longitudinal axes and face one another within said hollow shell.

3. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 2 which includes vane means cooperating with the slantlike openings at the outer ends of said conduits for deflecting toward one another air discharged from the slantlike openings.

4. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part comprises a horizontally disposed hollow shell and said passageway means comprises spaced conduits having the outer open ends thereof extending into said hollow shell and the inner open ends serving as air inlets disposed exteriorly of said shell, said casing including means defining a vertically disposed chamber, said chamber having an air inlet in the upper part thereof into which air flowing through said casing is diverted and outlet openings, a plurality of tubes, means for supporting said tubes horizontally in spaced relation with their rear ends in communication with the outlet openings, and the forward ends of said conduits, said tubes functioning as guides in which said conduits are axially movable.

5. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part is apertured for discharging air therefrom to form a second curtain of air which is essentially horizontal and directed rearward from said part toward said exhaust hood and functions to deflect toward the air inlet fumes produced during cooking and tending to move upward in front of said exhaust hood. 

1. A kitchen range comprising: a. means providing a horizontal platform defining a stationary working surface having a front edge and at least one surface heating unit thereon, b. evacuating means comprising structure including a casing defining an exhaust hood adapted to be disposed above at least the rear portion of said platform, c. said casing having a horizontally disposed air inlet which faces downward and overlies said platform and is vertically spaced therefrom, d. fan means in said casing for flowing air upward from the space above said working surface toward the air inlet, e. said structure including a hollow part, f. means for mounting said part on said casing, g. means providing a passageway for flowing air from said casing to said hollow part, h. said hollow part having an elongated slot which is defined by a pair of spaced walls and extends across said working surface along a line extending substantially parallel to the front edge thereof, i. said spaced walls forming means for discharging a curtain of air from said hollow part toward said working surface which is at an acute angle to the vertical and has a major component directed vertically downward in a direction from said air inlet and a minor component directed horizontally toward the rear of said working surface, and j. said means for mounting said part on said casing including structure for moving said part horizontally from and toward said casing to shift said curtain of air backward and forward with respect to said stationary working surface and said surface heating unit thereon.
 2. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part comprises a horizontally disposed hollow shell and said passageway means comprises spaced conduits having the outer ends thereof extending into said hOllow shell, the outer ends of said conduits having slantlike openings which are at an acute angle to their longitudinal axes and face one another within said hollow shell.
 3. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 2 which includes vane means cooperating with the slantlike openings at the outer ends of said conduits for deflecting toward one another air discharged from the slantlike openings.
 4. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part comprises a horizontally disposed hollow shell and said passageway means comprises spaced conduits having the outer open ends thereof extending into said hollow shell and the inner open ends serving as air inlets disposed exteriorly of said shell, said casing including means defining a vertically disposed chamber, said chamber having an air inlet in the upper part thereof into which air flowing through said casing is diverted and outlet openings, a plurality of tubes, means for supporting said tubes horizontally in spaced relation with their rear ends in communication with the outlet openings, and the forward ends of said conduits, said tubes functioning as guides in which said conduits are axially movable.
 5. A kitchen range as set forth in claim 1 in which said part is apertured for discharging air therefrom to form a second curtain of air which is essentially horizontal and directed rearward from said part toward said exhaust hood and functions to deflect toward the air inlet fumes produced during cooking and tending to move upward in front of said exhaust hood. 